


Kiddway's Game

by Phsbarbie



Series: Kiddway [4]
Category: Assassin's Creed
Genre: F/M, Literature, Romance, fan fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-27
Updated: 2014-05-27
Packaged: 2018-01-26 19:53:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1700525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phsbarbie/pseuds/Phsbarbie





	Kiddway's Game

   "Ah, Kenway, you really aren't any good at this, are you?" asks Mary, laughing at me from beside the haystack. I want to groan in frustration. It is impossible to sneak up on this woman! Instead, I hook her around the waist and pull her into the haystack with me, kissing her as soon as she lands beside me. Mary Read has become my obsession. 

    "Of course I'm good at this," I say after releasing her lips. "I _have_ been doing this for years, assassin training or no, and I've not been caught once."

    "And yet I've managed to catch you every time. Why is that?" she asks, her eyes now sparkling with amusement. 

    "Two reasons," I say, pressing a kiss to her neck. "One, because you are better than they were." 

    "Flattery won't get you out of training, Kenway," she tells me, accompanied by a look that tells me I'm an idiot if I think otherwise.

    "And two," I continue as if she hasn't spoken, "you're expecting me. You can't sneak up on anyone if they know when you're coming." Her eyes light up and narrow at the same time, the way they do when she's been issued a challenge. Pair that with the wicked grin on her face and I have a feeling I'm going to regret my last statement.

    "Is that right, Kenway? So if I gave you an area to patrol and told you I'd be coming for ye, I couldn't sneak up on ya?" I pluck up my confidence.

    "No, you couldn't." There's laughter in her eyes.

    "I'll make you a deal, Edward. If you can catch me even once out of five tries I'll agree you don't need more training. We can be back on the Jackdaw today. But if you can't, you quit your bitching and finish your training to my standards. Deal?" My grin matches her. I've studied Mary. I know how she moves, how she fights, how she likes to be touched in the middle of the night. I'll be able to catch her on the first try.

    "Deal," I say, shaking her hand.

    "Good." She pushes me out of the haystack. "Then get going." The area she gives me is smaller than the one I had to hunt her in. This will be a piece of cake. At least, I think so until I feel the tap on my shoulder. I spin to find Mary standing there with her arms crossed, looking unimpressed.

    "That's one," she says.

    "I was getting the lay of the land," I protest. "I don't know this island the way you do." She raises an eyebrow and stalks away without another word. I resume my patrol. Ten minutes later I feel her pressed against my back.

    "That's two," she whispers in my ear. She melts away and I try again. I'm walking by a building when I hear something land in the nearby haystack. I grin. Got her. I head over to the haystack and start to look through it when there's another tap on my shoulder from the clearing behind me.

    "Three," says Mary, trying not to laugh. I glare at her over my shoulder. "Ready to admit defeat, Kenway?"

    "Never." She shrugs and retreats, ready to start again. Number four comes quickly after that and I'm beginning to curse the day I met Mary Read.

    On our fifth go round I hear another sound in the haystack and smile to myself. She can't really think I'd fall for it again, can she? I've got you now, Mary. I approach the haystack, but at the last moment spin around to face the clearing, finding... nothing. Before I realize what's happening I'm falling backwards into the haystack beside a laughing Mary.

    "Well Edward, it seems we're right back to where we began," she says smugly. I try to be mad, but end up laughing along with her. 

    "Ah Mary, I do love you," I say before I realize what I'm saying. I freeze, expecting Mary to stiffen or perhaps even run. She does neither, simply rolling her eyes before giving me a look.

    "Kenway, don't use that word until you know what it means." I'm taken aback. She thinks I don't know what love means? I'm saved having to mount some sort of a defense by the sounds of Adewale looking for her.

    "Mary! Mary Read! Where are you?" She rolls out of our hiding spot, getting to her feet and brushing off the hay. 

    "I'm here, Ade. What's wrong?" He pauses.

    "Where's Kenway?"

    "Right here," I say, making my own appearance. He rolls his eyes.

    "Do the two of you have to play 'hide the pirate' everywhere? Never mind, I don't want to know and this is important. The _Revenge_  has been captured. Anne Bonny is up on charges of pirating." I still haven't gotten used to the speed at which Mary's easy going demeanor can disappear. Her laughing eyes are hard as stone now and there's no smile dancing on the edges of those lips.

    "Where is she?"

    "Kingston. We have four days until she goes before the judge." Mary turns to me without hesitation.

    "It seems your training is done after all, Kenway. The Jackdaw can get us there in time if we leave immediately." I nod.

    "Ade, are you coming with us?" I ask. He shakes his head.

    "No, Breddah. I'll follow with Ah Tabai. We don't have anything as fast as the Jackdaw, but we'll be right behind ye," he says, gesturing towards Mary, who's already halfway down the path leading to the Jackdaw.

    We manage to catch the right winds and dock in Kingston the morning of Anne's trial. The courtyard it's held in is full of people and we blend in on a bench near the back. They bring her out clapped in irons while she looks on in defiance, a look that doesn't change as the charges are read and she's sentenced to death. I feel Mary's muscles tense next to me and I know she's trying to form a plan to kill the entire courtyard and free Anne. Luckily she doesn't have to.

    "I'm pregnant!" yells Anne. The crowd breaks out in whispers. "That's right, you can't hang a woman quick with child, can ye?" As I examine her more closely I find her stomach is slightly rounded. Seems Anne had an ace up her sleeve.

    "Quiet!" yells the judge. "If what you claim _is_  true, then your execution will be stayed. But only until your term is up!" Anne is led away with a smile on her ever defiant face while Mary and I slink back to the ship. 

    "What now?" I ask once we've reached the cabin.

    "Anne's bought us a bit of time," she says. "We wait for Ade and Ah Tabai. Between the lot of us we'll be able to come up with a plan to spring her." I sit down on the bed, stunned by the day's events, while Mary begins to pace. Death? They sentenced sweet Anne Bonny to death for a bit of pirating? I study Mary as she walks. Is that what would happen to her if we were caught?

    "Mary, if we ever get caught I want you to plead your belly," I say earnestly. She glances over at me and scoffs. 

    "For that to work there'd need to be a babe in it, wouldn't there?" I grab her hand as she passes me and pull her to stand between my knees.

    "I'm serious, Kidd. It would take them a few weeks to figure out that you're not with child, long enough for me to mount a rescue." She tilts her head to the side.

    "Edward, if I was captured chances are you'd be captured too. A few weeks probably wouldn't be long enough."

    "Then sleep with one of the guards until you actually are!" I say desperately.

    "Are you mad?" she asks, trying to pull her hand away from me. I don't let it go.

    "Mary, do anything to keep yourself alive long enough for me to get to you. Promise me." She pauses to think before replying.

    "And after you rescue me, what then? Am I to rid myself of the babe? Or cast it away once it's born? Or am I truly to believe that you'd raise the child as your own?"

    "I would," I swear passionately.

    "Would ye now?" she says in a tone that proclaims she doesn't believe me.

    "Mary, that babe would be the only reason you still lived, the only reason that I'd have you back here beside me. I would be forever grateful and love that child for it." She studies me for a moment before wrapping her arms around my neck.

    "Okay, Kenway. Perhaps you know what love is after all."


End file.
